March 16, 2003
A visual revolution
In a thought provoking piece published in Editor & Publisher, Steve Outing writes about how the emerging trend of picture phones will likely influence news media in major ways. Already, several news organizations are asking their readers to contribute in a novel way, by sending in their pictures.
He predicts it will be common for newspapers to publish images of significant news events where professional photojournalists weren't present but picture phone users were. And though Photojournalism experts agree that in general this is a good thing -- it's not without its challenges.
It is likely to have even much bigger consquences than videos taken with popular camcorders, not always in arm's reach unlike cell phones, always near by. One can only wonder, if I may add, at the magnitude of the consequences, when you think of the most famous amateur video, the one documenting the brutal beating by the LA police of Rodney King, which led to riots in the city following the verdict of the trial.
It could potentially create a logistical nightmare for picture editors, flooding the news photo department with a wave of images sent in from the public. Such a scenario is perfectly likely in the event for instance of a terrorist attack in a major city, according to Kenny Irby, a visual journalism faculty member at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg. Irbi recommends news photo departments have a disaster plan in place for such situations.
Another fear is authenticity, how can you tell if a picture has been retouched? With the wide spread use of powerful photo design and production tool, Photoshop, editors need to be very careful about what they accept from the public and publish.
Steve Outing closes his column, with a lighter side, suggesting news feature editors match the creativity of one of the most popular UK web sites, Dogs in Cars, which publishes online user-submitted photos of ... dogs in cars. Great fun.
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